Prior art related to devices that move people, including rollercoasters and other amusement rides, perform accelerations and velocities in specific directions under specific G-forces to produce an exciting and euphoric sensation within a user. Other people movers such as elevators have the sole purpose of transporting people vertically from one location to another. Motion simulators for training also move people in preparation for dangerous, real world tasks.
Some of these systems utilize linear propulsion or linear lift systems to produce such accelerations. These linear motion systems can incorporate a variety of apparatus including, but not limited to, rotary motors with pulleys and steel cables, hydraulic motors, linear induction motors, linear synchronous motors or any other suitable linear actuator.
The recent advancement of virtual reality (VR) technology has greatly increased interest in the entertainment industry. A plethora of motion systems have been developed to accompany the new wave of interest. Most of these real motion systems are small-scale and typically utilize hydraulic motors and/or cylinders to induce a sensation of motion by producing small accelerations.
The use of VR on riders of actual rollercoasters is a relatively new idea. Six Flags has already implemented their own VR rollercoaster experience at several parks where the riders wear a VR headset whilst on the ride. Additional VR experiences are now, or soon will become, available at amusement parks around the world.
Being able to provide new experiences for people to enjoy and share will always be of interest as well as a valuable industry. Virtual reality headsets are already capable of providing what is known as “presence” which is the perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. The problem with virtual reality today is that developing experiences involving motion of the user is extremely difficult to do. The majority of VR content currently being developed consists of sitting or standing experiences or walking around a confined space only. Because VR technology has seen so much improvement, motion simulators need to catch up in order to maintain the feeling of presence within the user during motion. Conventional motion simulators lack the fidelity required for a user to maintain presence, and the disconnect between the virtual motion and real motion confuses the body's vestibular system causing nausea. The closer a motion simulator can get to matching the real accelerations with the virtual accelerations (remaining within biological tolerances), the more pleasing the experience will be. Although a conventional wooden or steel rollercoaster can be useful and is advantageous for certain applications, it suffers from several drawbacks. A conventional roller coaster may be defined as an amusement park attract on that consists of a fixed track with many tight turns and steep slopes, on which people ride in small fast cars.
One drawback is that the ride is static in its mechanical configuration. In other words, the path of such a conventional rollercoaster is constant because it requires deconstructing components that are extremely difficult to fabricate. Additionally, there is no location on the ride's path where the rider can experience a different acceleration from one ride to the next. This is, of course, neglecting weather and frictional effects due to differences in weight of the passenger car from ride to ride.
Another drawback is that the design process requires a lot of planning. It can require up to 1,500 hours to design a rollercoaster, plus two to six weeks to install and test it before it can be made available to the public.
Another drawback is that manufacturing techniques are very time-consuming and expensive. During the process of manufacturing rollercoasters, straight pieces of steel are heated and then permanently formed into desired shapes. The manufactured shapes of the rails need to be accurate to within a tenth of a millimeter of their designed shapes, and significant metal fatigue can result from the process.
To vary the perceived ride that a user experiences, it has been suggested to combine and map the virtual motion travel, provided via individual VR headsets worn by system users, with actual physical travel on a conventional rollercoaster. While such a system can minimize capital outlay by utilizing an existing physical rollercoaster, a drawback is that the configuration of the ride is fixed and limited to the three-dimensional configuration of the rollercoaster track itself.
It has been suggested to use motion simulators in place of conventional rollercoasters. However, conventional motion simulators, presently used for combat and space transportation or for other difficult tasks that cannot be safely replicated in the real world, lack the required fidelity to reality limiting its use to only a small handful of experiences.
In the prior art, the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., includes a Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) wherein the motion base features six degrees of freedom, meaning that a cab, with the pilot inside, can be driven in the six ways that an aircraft or space capsule is capable of moving. This includes the three translational degrees of freedom (vertical, lateral, and longitudinal) and the three rotational degrees of freedom (pitch, roll, and yaw). Providing the vertical degree of freedom is a vertical structure including a platform, which spans the 70-foot height of the building and supports the mechanisms for the remaining degrees of freedom. Supporting the platform are two columns that extend into 75-foot deep shafts. Guides on either end and on one side of the platform keep it aligned. Moving the 70-ton weight of the platform and its load quickly is made possible by an equilibrator that pressurizes the two supporting columns with nitrogen, neutralizing the immense load. Eight 150-horsepower motors drive the columns, accelerating the platform vertically up to 22 feet/second/second, or almost ¾ g. Providing lateral movement is a lateral carriage, which can translate 40 feet and is driven by four 40-horsepower electric motors. Longitudinal movement is provided by a longitudinal carriage, with a range of 8 feet, driven by telescoping hydraulic actuators.
Like the longitudinal carriage, the three rotational degrees of freedom are driven hydraulically. A rotating center post provides yaw movements, and pitch and roll hydraulic actuators provide pitch and roll movements.
Two catenaries, which attach to the lateral carriage, protect the many electric, electronic, and hydraulic lines that connect a moving cab to the rest of the simulator. Hinges in the catenaries make them flexible, allowing them to move as the cab moves.
Out-the-window (OTW) graphics provide computer-generated images that simulate the outside world for a pilot. The VMS maintains two image generators, one with five channels and one with six. Each channel corresponds to the image displayed in a single window. The image generators are capable of independent eyepoints; in other words, they can display the scene from different positions simultaneously. This enables the pilot and copilot to view the scene accurately from their slightly different positions.
A shortcoming of this system is that each of the rotational degrees of freedom is only partial, unlike a true gimbal system wherein each gimbal is capable of the full 360° of rotation about its own axis.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,631, issued Apr. 23, 1996 to DeSalvo; U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,582 issued Sep. 24, 1996 to Swensen; U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,338 issued Dec. 28, 1999 to DiNunzio; U.S. Pat. No. 8,968,109, issued Mar. 3, 2015 to Stoker; and U.S. Pat. No. 9,011,259, issued Apr. 21, 2015 to Schmidt all disclose some elements similar to that of the present invention, but they do not anticipate the present invention nor taken together render the present invention obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art.
What is needed in the art is an improved real or physical motion system for simulating, in full scale and high fidelity, the actual path in three dimensional space of any physically moving object, operable without the use of rails fixed in space to describe the actual path, and programmable to provide any desired physical path at any velocity and variation thereof through a three-dimensional space.
What is further needed is such a system wherein a user may be subjected to any physical orientation in such a three-dimensional space while traveling on such a physical path, and in which the physical path may be continuous or discontinuous
What is still further needed is such a system wherein a user is equipped with a virtual reality apparatus wherein a virtual path viewed by the user is synchronized with the user's physical path to produce a sensation in the user of a desired travel experience.
It is the object of the present invention to create in a user's mind a realistic sensation of virtual travel through a three-dimensional scene.
It is a further object of the present invention to move a user along a physical path corresponding to a virtual travel path by providing accurate accelerations with a high degree of fidelity drastically improving the quality of the experience over any other system of similar purpose.